Crooked River Ranch Roundup

Events converge at CRR

By John Bowler CRR Correspondent Crooked River Ranch bustled with three events that drew attendees from inside and outside Ranch boundaries last Saturday, Sept. 8. It may be stretching the analogy a bit, but last Saturday had some aspects of a "perfect storm" of events because it developed of its own momentum, was not preplanned overall and apparently was not controlled by Ranch officials. It just happened that way and was unprecedented within memory. The three events that made up the perfect storm were: the community yard sale under the aegis of Phase Reps Chairwoman Paulette Nordin; the Tennis Fest to celebrate the complete redoing of the Ranch tennis courts, organized by Ranch Administrator Judy LaPora; and the Sixth Annual Burgers and Politics gathering, sponsored by the Jefferson County Republican Party Chairwoman Kate Adams. The first two events, the community yard sale and Burgers and Politics, were planned back in late 2011 and early 2012, respectively, and were on the Ranch calendar of events unbeknownst to LaPora. LaPora settled into her new administrator job in late January. Apparently scheduled Ranch events were not part of her initial orientation, which was complex and stressed administrative duties. When all three organizers discovered the confluence of the three events occurring on Saturday, Sept. 8, they decided that there was no problem. As the day turned out, they made the right call. All three events were well attended, made their objectives satisfactorily and were considered successful by all three organizers. The community yard sale experienced brisk activity after the opening gun on Friday morning at 8 a.m. and a large crowd was on hand munching burgers by 12:30 p.m. at MacPherson Park the site of Burgers and Politics. Nordin said they had close to 70 homes participating in the community yard sale and her sampling of them after the event produced positive comments all around and general satisfaction with the way it was run. She also said they know how to make it even better next year and will. The same was true of the Tennis Fest, according to Mike Knoke, who ran the food and drink distribution, and LaPora who oversaw the entire event. There were between 50 and 70 people on hand who devoured a whole box of hot dogs in addition to actively participating in the demonstrations and instructions. The demo of pickle ball drew a great deal of interest. Kate Adams echoed the assessments of Nordin and LaPora, and reported her Burgers and Politics event drew people from all over Oregon including east of the Cascades. They will consider holding it later in the day next year, so that people running their event can attend the other events going on that day and vice versa. So the perfect storm of events this year was acclaimed a hit and may even be expanded next year. It is entirely possible that other organizations will want to piggyback on its success. Time will tell.